The SpaceX Falcon 9 is a partially reusable two-stage rocket. It is powered by nine SpaceX Merlin engines. Its first stage uses rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen, while the second stage uses liquid oxygen. The Falcon 9 can lift payloads of up to 50,300 pounds to low-Earth orbit, and 18,300 pounds to geostationary transfer orbit, …
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is the first mission to test technologies for preventing an impact of Earth by a hazardous asteroid. DART will demonstrate the planetary defense technique known as kinetic impact. The DART spacecraft will slam into an asteroid and shift its orbit, taking a critical step in demonstrating ways to …
A team of launch managers for NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission have authorized approval to proceed to launch countdown at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California ahead of a scheduled launch on Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 10:21 p.m. PST (Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 1:21 a.m. EST) from the SpaceX Space Launch Complex 4. …
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite T (GOES-T) – the third satellite in NOAA's GOES-R series – is now in Florida, undergoing final preparations ahead of its targeted launch on March 1, 2022. The satellite arrived at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 10, 2021, in a United States Air …
The launch readiness date for the James Webb Space Telescope is moving to no earlier than Dec. 22 to allow for additional testing of the observatory, following a recent incident that occurred during Webb's launch preparations. The incident occurred during operations at the satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, performed under Arianespace overall responsibility. …
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is now encapsulated in the SpaceX payload fairings. Technicians with SpaceX installed the two halves of the fairing around the spacecraft over the course of two days, Nov. 16 and 17, inside the SpaceX Payload Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The payload fairing serves …
Weather is 90% go for the DART launch on Nov. 23, with only a 10% of violation (POV) for winds with no other area of concern. POV for backup day is 0% with no area of concern.
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft was attached to its payload adapter on Nov. 11 inside the SpaceX Payload Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. An integrated team of workers with NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), SpaceX, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) completed the work in preparation for …
We continue to explore Webb's instrumentation this week, highlighting the Canadian contributions to the mission. As you'll see, the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument is ideally suited for studying two of Webb's scientific themes. Scientists will use NIRISS to take advantage of the natural phenomenon of the atmospheric transmission of transiting exoplanets and …
NASA's Lucy spacecraft continues to operate in cruise mode – the standard mode for its orbit away from Earth. Checkouts for the Lucy instruments were successfully completed Nov. 8, and all instruments are working normally. Following checkout completion, the instruments were powered off, and the remaining spacecraft subsystem commissioning activities are continuing as scheduled. Lucy's …
